Businesses violating food safety norms under scanner in Mancherial

In a recent survey carried out by the FSSAI, a major proportion of food business operators in seven municipalities of the Mancherial district were found to be flouting food safety norms

Mancherial: Eateries and food business operators violating norms of the Food Safety Act 2006 and operating without mandatory registrations and licenses are under the scanner in the Mancherial district.

As per the rules of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), food business operators that record an annual turnover below Rs 12 lakh should have registrations. They must obtain a license if their turnover is above Rs 12 lakh.

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In a recent survey carried out by the FSSAI, a major proportion of food business operators in seven municipalities of the district were found to be flouting food safety norms. Only 436 FBOs have taken either registration or license out of the total 3,382 FBOs including traders of meat, eateries, rice mills, dairy parlours, food processing, packaging and transport agencies, etc., in Mancherial, Bellampalli, Mandamarri, Naspur, Luxettipet, Kyathanpalli and Chennur municipalities. Of them, 231 had registration, while 205 had a license.

A staggering 2,946 FBOs did not register their firms with the authority, nor secured licenses. Authorities of the FSSAI conducted awareness programmes and sensitised the FBOs and meat processing units in the seven civic bodies by taking assistance from authorities of these municipalities and staffers of the health department recently. As a result, 2,811 entities have now registered their names with the authority.

“A total of 1,054 FBOs registered their firms during melas held in the municipalities, while 1,422 establishments enrolled their names during shop-to-shop visits conducted by officials concerned and 335 entities applied online for registrations. A FBO should have registration or license depending on annual turnover. Else, action will be taken against the violators, besides imposing fines,” Food Safety Designated Officer Dr Vijaya Purnina told Telangana Today.

FBOs could easily get registered and obtain licenses by visiting the website https://foscos.fssai.gov.in/ of FSSA by furnishing relevant documents, proof of ID, address, photograph and paying nominal fee. She advised the operators to show their original income, pointing out that claiming low revenues would amount to violation of law.

Meanwhile, the food safety department is planning to intensify enforcement of norms. They are going to collect samples testing and verify registrations of the FBOs, eateries in order to check violations and adulteration of the food. They are also planning to crack the whip on local bulk milk traders, manufacturers of cooking oil, ice cream, sweet shops that flouts norms.